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Research Conference: Faculty Sponsor Roles and Responsibilities

Faculty Sponsor

A Faculty Sponsor is a faculty member that assists students with all aspects of preparation for the Undergraduate Research Conference. In order to present students must have a Faculty Sponsor.

Faculty Sponsor Responsibilities:

Assist students with the research, writing, abstract submission and presentation components of the Undergraduate Research Conference.

Communicate with students regularly about their projects leading up to the submission of their abstract.

Remind students that the abstract submission deadline is February 17, 2017 at 11:59 PM.

Review inital abstract submission and mark it "Approved" or "Requires Revision" by February 24, 2017

Notify students that they have until March 1, 2017 to re-submit their abstracts if necessary.

Final date for abstract approval is March 3, 2017 at 11:59 PM. Abstracts marked "Requires Revision" will not be included in the conference.

Faculty Sponsor Personalized Online Interface

Faculty Sponsors will receive an automated email once their student has applied online and submited an abstract for review.

Suggested Guidelines for Abstract Review

Abstracts should be in paragraph form and should total approximately 250 words. If the abstract is not of the appropriate length or does not meet the suggested guidelines, please enter revisions and notes in the text box on the online form and ask the student to revise their abstract by selecting “Requires Revision” from the drop-down menu and then clicking on the “Save Changes” button.

In your first review of a student’s abstract, please select either the “Approved” or “Requires Revision” status. The “Not Approved” status should only be selected after the student has first submitted a revised version of their abstract. If you select the “Not Approved” status, the student will automatically be notified that their Faculty Sponsor (you) have not approved their abstract for presentation at the conference

Please be aware that your name will be published as the student’s Faculty Sponsor in the conference abstract booklet. Please review the abstract for all spelling and grammatical errors. There will not be any additional proofing of the abstract outside of your review.

In addition to the content of the abstract, please also review the Abstract Title and Area of Study selected by the student for appropriateness. The Area of Study designates the heading under which the abstract will be listed in the abstract booklet. For this reason, the Area of Study may not be the same as the student’s major or concentration.

Please be aware a student may submit an abstract even if their research project is not yet complete, however, expected/hypothesized results and conclusions should be discussed in the abstract.

SIGNIFICANCE

Does the abstract exhibit student mastery of the subject, independence, and creativity?

Does the abstract show dedication to scholarly impact and/or public service?

STRUCTURE

Does the abstract clearly state the purpose of the project? Is the rationale for the project made clear ?

Does the abstract clearly outline research or other methods used in the project?

Does the abstract describe the results observed and the conclusions drawn from the project?

STYLE AND PRESENTATION

Is the abstract self‑ contained? When it is read does it stand on its own or does it rely on references to other sources?

Is the abstract both concise and clear?

Are there unfamiliar abbreviations and/or acronyms in the abstract?

Is the abstract written in the third person? (Abstract writers should use the third person unless use of the first person will avoid cumbersome sentence constructions.)

If the author included non-textual information in the abstract (i.e., short tables, equations, formulas, diagrams, etc.), does it add to or detract from the abstract?